Monthly Archives: December 2013

If you’ve been keeping up with us, you’ve probably picked up on the Movement Party’s adventures over the past year, from Poland, to Brazil, to our beloved Wellfleet, Cape Cod.

You may have noticed our explorations of movement across diverse landscapes and terrains— from ponds, beaches, parking lots and public squares, to abandoned railroads.

You may have also seen us experiment with different vehicles for dance experiences, whether through classes and workshops, performances, or an immersive summer festival.

And, if you haven’t noticed yet, be advised that:

WE ARE ALL REALLY EXCITED!

The key word is ALL. A lot has changed for the Movement Party over the past year. We have grown from a small creative partnership to a collaborative platform including artists from across the United States and beyond. We’ve been meeting monthly to plot our course for our 3rd annual Fleet Moves Dance Festival, an event that has become the culmination of our learning and growing.

We hope you will join us in our endeavors in the coming year. It is a vital and formative season for the Movement Party, and any amount of support from you will make a definitive impact and build momentum around our work during this time.

Please consider making a tax-deductible donation here, an in-kind contribution, or joining us for a class or performance. We value your support tremendously, and we look forward to this new year with you.

Last week, I joined fellow Movement Party member Brandin Steffensen in Buffalo to facilitate “Now Practices: Researching improvisation as performance.” Over the course of five days, we formed a a temporary ensemble of dancers and spent more than 45 hours in Wasteland Studios, dancing and discussing dancing. Collectively, we built the culminating performance, “Now The Show,” from practices offered by facilitators and scores developed collaboratively by the group. We drew from Nancy Stark Smith’s group contact improvisation form, the Underscore; Brandin Steffensen’s game structure, Pentamode; Barbara Dilley’s Contemplative Dance Practice; and the Movement Party’s site-specific workshop, Relationscapes. Throughout the rehearsal process, we practiced these forms one after another, paying close attention to the phenomena unique to each and shared by each—moving towards a scaffolding for our improvised performance.

As part of this process, we got to spend a day at Silo City, playing in the abandoned grain elevators and surrounding landscape. Here are some snapshots from our Relationscapes adventures there:

photo: Jim Bush

photo: Jim Bush

photo: Jim Bush

photo: Zena Bibler

Huge thanks to Jim Bush for the photos and also to Nancy Hughes and the rest of the team at Buffalo CI for hosting this wonderful experience!